A deserted island... a lost man... memories of a fatal crash... a book written by a dying explorer.
Dear Esther is a ghost story told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional gameplay, the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly triggered by moving around the environments, making every telling unique. Features a stunning, specially commissioned soundtrack. Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it's because it may just be all a delusion.
What is the significance of the aerial - What happened on the motorway - is the island real or imagined - who is Esther and why has she chosen to summon you here?
The answers are out there, on the lost beach and the tunnels under the island. Or then again, they may just not be, after all...

This week William from Podcast 17 joins the ModDB crew for an entertaining insight to the weeks worth of modding news, goss and other assorted virtual goodies! The following podcast may make you laugh. You have been warned.

Other:

So that's it for this week modders, but don't fear we will be back next week with more mods and goss for you all to enjoy! Don't forget to send your modding/gaming questions to dave@moddb.com and we will answer the questions on the show!

And one more comment: using open source engines does not mean you're not making a game. See Alien Arena, Irong Grip: Warlord, just to name a few.
And yes, the open source licensing does not forbid you to chagre money, it will mrerely force you to share the code if anyone asks for it.
The threshold would be when your product does not need a particular game, but rather ships everything needed to play it.
Using the quality of the artwork for this purpose is not a good factor either (see all these source mods like Jailbreak, or Eternal Silence).

Awesome cast guys!
The Smokin' Guns map tools will be updated shortly :( We found an error in the included compiler, and the second rev will also be streamlined for easy of installation.
Its great that you keep an eye on us :P

Uhh, you guys are abit ill informed about some things you are saying concering EiR and OMG. As a member I'm listening and saying "Wtf, these guys are either on crack or have no idea what they are talking about lol, except Henley"

"The Last Stand" was a campaign for EiR when FL left the mod to go to Conan about 6 months before. All Dev. on the mod stopped well before that. The Last Stand was put in place to keep as many people together as along as we can. But, this fell apart do to we couldn't fix the many bugs that were left with EiR. That is why 95% of the TLS group went to make Operation Market Garden Mod.

The Last Stand group was never a mod but a campaign.

Also there is many parts that you have been ill informed on the Operation Market Garden Mod in your Modcast.

As the webmaster for the TLS 1 and part of TLS 2 campaigns, I back this man up. TLS was never a mod, it was a campaign run to try to add new life to the stagnating EIR, which at that point had lost ALL dev support.

And no, OMG is not using ANY of the code from EIR. The only similarity is the war cp, which was used with permission from a FREELANCER, not an EIR dev.

In an effort to combat the "raped by a pro" problem with Smashball, which clearly hinders adoption rate, we are trying a few things. Here are two examples:

1) Segregating n00bs and pros as our playerbase grows. We have all noticed that when a n00b joins a server full of n00bs, he has a lot more fun and is more patient with learning the flow of the game and the movement controls. Getting pwnt repeatedly by pro players when you've been playing for 3 minutes is definitely unfun.

2) We have found that the learning curve on Smashball is a bit longer than the average mod, and that the tutorial only teaches basic skills--not how to be competitive in a real game full of pros. We have several pros (folks that have been playing religiously since beta or alpha) who have volunteered to teach Smashball skills to servers full of n00bs. I recommend you keep an eye out for the 'class schedule' and attend one, it will really increase your enjoyment of the game!